Episode 434: An Awful Lot of Listener Emails
Date April 23, 2014 Summary Ben and Sam answer listener emails about must-watch players, breaking news, uniform numbers, Billy Hamilton, Mike Trout, and more. Topics * Must-see players * Breaking news and anonymous sources * Change-up movement * Billy Hamilton * Stolen bases and OBP * Stealing first base * Preventing Tommy John hypothetical * Getting rid of uniform numbers * Mike Trout's hypothetical college numbers * Expanded rosters * Avoiding double plays Intro Ace of Base, "The Sign" Banter * Webb/Albers follow-up: Ryan Webb finished a game without earning the save * Episode 357 follow-up: Oscar Taveras changed agents again * Episode 307 follow-up: Japhet Amador is heading back to Mexico Email Questions * Tyson: "I purchased an MLB.TV subscription this year and have been enjoying the player tracker feature. It's limited to 30 players and most of the slots are filled with my fantasy baseball players. With my remaining spots I have selected must-see players, Billy Hamilton for example. After watching Bartolo Colon batting gifs all weekend I may add him to my list. If you could only select five players for the player tracker which five would you pick? Would you be tilted towards selecting players who might demonstrate greatness or would you prefer the potential of silliness occurring?" * Pell (Sweden): "..the topic was that some news broke from a source within a team and Ben stated that he didn't like these stories breaking with anonymous sources and that he preferred to get all his news as press releases from teams. I was really surprised by this point of view as many of the big-ish stories wouldn't have been known if it weren't for the investigative journalism done by many of the reporters with anonymous sources." * Andy: "Why is a changeup more effective to an opposite handed hitter?" * Christopher (Tennessee): "When talking about players like Billy Hamilton people always say you can't steal first base, but what if you could? What if when the pitcher started his windup the batter could throw his bat down and run to first? How often, practically speaking, would a player like hamilton be safe? It seems to me that a left handed batter might actually be fairly successful, especially when it comes to passed balls and such. How much would a rule like this help the Hamiltons and Dee Gordons of the world, and would you want to use this instead of a bunt?" * Christopher: "If you could reduce the likelihood of Tommy John surgery on a pitcher by 99% but you were forced to accept a certain performance hit in order to prevent that injury, how much of a hit would be acceptable in return? Let's assume he has possible star potential and he's not guaranteed Tommy John surgery if you don't take this deal. Let's also assume that you have six years of control and that you expect your team to be in contention in each of these season." * Matt: "Everyone wore number 42 on Jackie Robinson day and nobody was confused with who was who because everyone has fixed positions. In most sports this would cause chaos. Maybe it's me but I don't remember player numbers so if the game got rid of jersey numbers would we be missing that much?" * Tyler: "Mike Trout is both the best player in Major League Baseball today and also extremely young. At 22 years old he theoretically would be a senior in college had he chosen that route instead of signing out of high school. My question is, given how successful Mike Trout is facing major league pitching, what would his numbers look like right now if he had chosen to go to a four year university? Would he shatter every hitting record ever, or do you think his development really took off somewhere in the Angels' minor league system to the point where Trout might only be an above average college hitter waiting for the right coach to tweak something in his game in the minor leagues." * David (Bloomington, IN): "If rosters expand to 26 or 27 do you think that it will reintroduce old ideas like platooning, defensive replacements, pinch runners, and third catchers, all of which are basically obsolete in 2014? Or, do you think that given more roster spots teams would just carry more specialized relievers going with 9 or 10 man bullpens?" * Dominic: "Assume that Major League Baseball adopted a rule that every time a batter grounded into a double player he would have to play the remainder of the game without pants. Do you think that the fear of humiliation, running around in front of 30,000 fans with nothing between the waist and socks except tighty whities and a jock would cause batters to be extra conscientious about putting the ball in the air or otherwise avoiding one of the more frustrating and annoying outcomes in baseball?" Play Index * Inspired by Billy Hamilton, Sam wants to find players that have high stolen base percentages when compared to their on base percentage. * This season Hamilton has 42% as many stolen bases as times reached base. This means that, for example, he would have 42 stolen bases in 100 times on base. * There are 18 players in history who have had a season where they stole bases 50% or more of the time they reached base. * In 1978 Willie Wilson stole 75% of the time he was on base. He reached base 61 times and had 46 steals. Notes * Sam, on baseball news while he was gone, "I was reading all the foreign newspapers trying to get my Albers/Webb news fix." * Ben's must-see players: Billy Hamilton, Mike Trout, Jose Fernandez, Yu Darvish, and Andrelton Simmons when he is fielding a ground ball. * Sam says his list would be changing but thinks Jose Fernandez, Craig Kimbrel and Masahiro Tanaka would be constants. * Changeups are more effective to opposite handed hitters because of the way the pitch breaks, breaking away from an opposite handed hitter. * Sam thinks the risk of having a pitcher need Tommy John is low enough that he would take his chances and not accept the performance hit. * Player's ability to direct batted balls was also discussed in Episode 429. Links * Effectively Wild Episode 434: An Awful Lot of Listener Emails * The Rays' Changeup Revolution by Ben Lindbergh * Hang Up and Listen: The Remember the 96 Edition * Hit 'em where they ain't - if you can by John Walsh Category:Email Episodes Category:Episodes